Fishing birds and a surprise guest

I counted eleven egrets and at least four great blue herons under a cloud of gulls as they moved up and down the creek.  They must be following a school of fish.  The tide is high and the light is low and shadowless.

The overcast broke up around 9am and slid out to sea.  The fishing birds were long gone, except for cormorants.  But the sun brought out the feeder birds.  In addition to all the usuals, there were sparrows, titmice, a wren, and a hairy woodpecker.

Around noon, under a mostly blue sky, pelicans, herons, egrets, gulls, and mergansers hunted for fish, but not very successfully.  Geese gathered all along the bulkhead.  Squirrels and white throats gobbled up the peanut hearts. There's a snowy owl irruption this winter but I doubt that treed suburbia will be to their liking.

The fishing continues.  Herons and egrets, pelicans and gulls keep flying over the creek.